Intelligent Design? I Think Not.

First, I watched the BBC’s Horizon program last night (one of the few tv programs I take time to watch these days) to see what they had to say about the War On Science.

The program focussed on what the proponents of Intelligent Design have to say about the validity of Darwinian Evolution. Despite having a few people who came across as able scientists, it soon became clear that their arguments were unsound – even before the program wheeled out some scientific big guns to refute them. As soon as they began to advocate the guidance of evolution by an intelligent designer (in reality this is just another way of saying “creator”), I found myself asking “In that case, who designed the designer?”.

And this is where their so called science breaks down. Because for a theory to have validity, it must hold true for all known scenarios. If it doesn’t, it is either wrong or needs to be revised. It doesn’t matter what religion you are promoting, or how fundamental your beliefs are. And there’s the rub, the chief proponent of the Intelligent Design idea was quoted by the program as being a “born-again Christian” and many of its supporters were “Christian fundamentalists”. In my experience, fundamentalists of any stripe are not known for being reasonable or willing to accept ideas contrary to their doctrine.

Whatever its failings – if any, Darwin’s theory is well supported by a body of scientifically gathered evidence and explains pretty much all of the biology we see around us. It will take something pretty special to knock it from it’s perch. Intelligent Design is nothing special.

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